NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 379 



doctrine of earthquakes : they were believed to be caused by winds 

 issuing from the earth, and this view was based upon the passage in 

 the one hundred and thirty-fifth Psalm, " He bringeth the wind out of 

 his treasuries."* 



Such were the main typical attempts during nearly fourteen cent- 

 uries to build up under theological guidance and within scriptural limi- 

 tations a sacred science of meteorology. But these theories were 

 mainly evolved in the effort to establish a basis and general theory of 

 phenomena : it still remained to account for special manifestations, 

 and here came a development of theological thought far more im- 

 portant. 



This development was twofold : on the one hand, these phenomena 

 were attributed to the Almighty ; and, on the other, to Satan. As to 

 the first of these theories, we constantly find the divine wrath men- 

 tioned by the earlier fathers as the cause of lightning, hail-storms, 

 hurricanes, and the like. 



At the very beginning of Christianity we see a curious struggle 

 between pagan and Christian belief upon this point. Near the close 

 of the second century the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, in his effort to 

 save the empire, fought a hotly-contested battle with the Quadi, in 

 what is now Hungary. While the issue of this great battle was yet 

 doubtful, there came suddenly a blinding storm beating into the faces 

 of the Quadi. This gave the Roman troops the advantage, and ena- 

 bled Marcus Aurelius to win a decisive victory. Votaries of each of 

 the great religions claimed that this storm was caused by the object 

 of their own adoration. The pagans insisted that Jupiter had sent 

 the storm in obedience to their prayers, and on the Antonine Column 

 at Rome we may still see the figure of Olympian Jove casting his 

 thunderbolts and pouring a storm of rain from the open heavens 

 against the Quadi. On the other hand, the Christians insisted that 

 the storm had been sent by Jehovah in obedience to their prayers ; 

 and Tertullian, Eusebius, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, and Saint Jerome 

 were among those who insisted upon this meteorological miracle the 

 first two, indeed, in the fervor of their arguments for its reality, 

 allowing themselves to be carried considerably beyond exact histori- 

 cal truth, f 



As time went on, the Fathers developed this view more and more 

 from various texts in the Jewish and Christian sacred books, substi- 

 tuting for Jupiter flinging his thunderbolts the Almighty wrapped in 

 thunder and sending forth his lightnings. Through the middle ages 

 this was fostered until it became a mere truism, entering into all me- 



* See Rcisch, " Margarita philosophica," ix, IS, and Eck, " Arist. Meteor." (as above), 

 ii, nota 2. 



f For the authorities, pagan and Christian, see the note of Merivale, in his "Ilistory 

 of the Romans under the Empire," chap, lxviii. He refers, for still fuller citations, to 

 Fynes Clinton's " Fast. Rom.," p. 24. 



